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- Mitander, Tomas, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Det urbana rummets in- och utsidor : Teoretiska utmaningar för forskning om urban politik
- 2017
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Ingår i: Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift. - Lund. - 0039-0747. ; 119:3, s. 389-412
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The purpose of this article is to contribute to new thinking regarding research on urban politics in, and beyond, Sweden. We do this by arguing for a multi-disciplinary conversation on space, politics and governance, building on theoretical developments in disciplines such as geography, sociology and political theory. By developing a conceptual understanding of space as relational, the political in terms of contingency, and governance as governmentality we suggest that the concept of ‘the urban’ could be theorized and analyzed as a governmental assemblage. This approach opens up for new questions regarding where urban politics takes place, how it govern us and with what efects. One important implication of this proposed approach is that the urban produce both insides and outsides relationally and hence that the urban also can be studied out side cities and city regions.
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- Mitander, Tomas, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Peace and Quiet : Domestic Science and the Rise of New Precarious Subjects
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- While peace remains a concept that is primarily invoked and utilized in relation to armed conflict this paper explores how contemporary regimes of government also calls for a specific form of domestic peace. Throughout Europe and beyond the last decades of market oriented reforms and austerity measures have called for nations and regions to rally behind processes and policies of innovation in order to be competitive. This race for competitiveness is often described in war-like metaphors which emphasizes the need to ‘develop spearheads’, ‘mobilize forces’, ‘foster commanders’, ‘build alliances’ and create ‘united frontiers’. As in moments of armed conflict, success in this war of competitiveness requires a kind of conformity or ‘peace and quiet’ within the own ranks. In short, the room for politics is severely constrained. Therefore, in this paper we explore what we identify as a global policy discourse concerning innovation as competitiveness as it unfolds in specific localized contexts. When doing so we investigate the modes of domestic silence that functions as a necessary requirement for regions and nations and theorize how this form of depoliticization becomes complicit in the production and stratification of precariousness for the subjects of rule (Lorey, 2015).
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- Mitander, Tomas, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Tiden, makten, rummet
- 2013
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Ingår i: Det regionala samhällsbyggandets praktiker. - Göteborg : Daidalos. - 9789171734228 ; , s. 240-252
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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- Olsson, David
(författare)
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Conditions of ‘Sustainability’ : The Case of Climate Change Adaptation in Sweden
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- By describing climate change as one of the greatest challenges of our time, the Swedish government has expressed a commitment to climate change adaptation as an integral part of the country’s sustainable development efforts. Sweden has also been portrayed as a frontrunner of climate policy and sustainable development. However, research and rankings describe even the ‘good example’ of Sweden as unsustainable, including its responses to climate change. Transformation is needed.Based on the ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) approach, this thesis describes and problematizes conditions of ‘sustainability’ constituted through problem representations of governing climate change adaptation in Sweden. In addition, the study provides a discussion of alternative problem representations constituting conditions with new possibilities for transformation.The empirical material for the analysis of current conditions in Sweden consists of policy documents as well as interviews with municipal and regional experts involved in promoting and implementing adaptation. I also analyze conditions constituted through problem representations in research. These are used as points of comparison for the problematization of conditions in Sweden.My conclusions are that the current conditions of ‘sustainability’, constituted through the problem representations in Sweden, create a focus on advancing functional governance of adaptation as well as a focus on reducing marginalization of neglected sustainability concerns by integrating them with the current order of things. Problematizations of domination are largely absent. I argue that possibilities for transformation could be advanced by problematizing domination. Through problematizations of the current decentralization of responsibility, the integration imperative, and the primacy of economic growth over environmental and social dimensions of sustainability, I suggest ways in which this type of problematization could be facilitated.
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- Säll, Line, 1983-
(författare)
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Analyzing modalities of depolitiziation in regional politics : arena shifting, global policy assemblages and policy mobility
- 2013
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Ingår i: 8<sup>th</sup> International Interpretive Policy Analysis Conference (IPA) 2013. ; , s. 1-16
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper discusses methodological concerns when analysing modalities of depoliticization in regional politics by focusing on arena shifting, global policy assemblages (knowledge regimes) and policy mobility. The utility of this methodological approach, as well as the challenges faced, is illustrated by a study of the depoliticization of regional policy in Sweden. The starting point of the discussion is an on-going study of the changes that have occurred in the politics of regional policy in Sweden since the 1960s. Regional policy was during the 70s and 80s governed by the strong central state, a highly politicized and contested policy area; rural areas were put against urban areas, centralisation towards decentralisation and state interventions towards the free market. Since the late 1990s new modes of governance have been introduced. A regionalisation of regional policy has been pursued, motivated by the need for stronger democratic support, greater participation and more effective regional development policies. However, regional policy has evolved into a depoliticized policy area; governed by researchers, consultants and civil servants. The conflicts that previously characterised the policy area have transformed into consensus on how regional growth should be governed and organised. The analytical approach to depoliticization, and the methodological challenges faced, is discussed in relation to three interrelated aspects; arena shifting, global policy assemblages and policy mobility. First, it can be argued that the depoliticization of regional policy has been parallel to a process of arena shifting in the sense that decision-making power has been decentralised from the state to the sub-national regions. However, new arenas have also developed as new modes of governance has been introduces (e.g. partnerships and cluster cooperation). This brings us to the argument that the process of depoliticization also has been parallel to the introduction of new concepts in regional policy: clusters, innovation systems and triple helix, concepts that can be understood as global urban policy models, or in terms of global policy assemblages. These concepts, originating from groups of academics, and the theoretical representation of policy have also given researcher, consultants and other experts a leading role in policy formulation and assessment. However, the challenge is to capture how these global policy assemblages relates to the construction of local and regional practices. The policy mobility approach indicates that policy should not be understood in terms of top-down, import-export metaphors. Rather, policies are transferred, translated and transformed. The key arguments of the paper is that depoliticization studies will utilise from an analysis of global policy assemblages such as ‘the cluster framework’ which elucidates the mobility of policy (how policies are reproduced in space and time) but also how these affect practices of arena shifting and increasing consensus.
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- Säll, Line, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Competitive Desires : The Creative Class and Regional Governance in Sweden
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Throughout Europe and beyond the powerful discourse of the creative class seems to be firmly nested in the governance of cities and regions as well as entire nations. Indeed, googling terms such as “creative city” or “creative region” yields millions of hits indicating the spread of the theories put forward by Richard Florida in a series of influential books and articles during the first decade of the twenty first century. Moreover, the discursive notion of creativity is not only disseminated widely around the globe, it is also introduced in a variety of different spaces making it just as likely to find metropolis regions such as London, Paris or Berlin to claim the title of being a “creative region” as it is finding peripheral territories and provincial towns articulating their creative, innovative and entrepreneurial spirit. In this paper we investigate empirically how the creative class discourse is expressed in the governance of Swedish regions by focusing on so called Regional Development Strategies (RDS) for all Swedish regions. Territorial governance in Sweden has been the object of ongoing debates, political proposals, government reports and expert opinions since at least the 1960’s, however the last two decades have been marked by more intensive discussions and indeed also a series of territorial transformations. In the midst of these reconfigurations new political spaces arise and new political rationalities emerge. In short, what used to be a guiding rationality of redistribution between rich and poor regions can now better be described as a rationality of (global) competition. Correspondingly, notions of (global) competitiveness are articulated as more or less the inevitable goal for the practice of governing Swedish regions and we show how one of the primary responses to such a competition is the quest for creativity. By critically examining the RDS documents we show how in this process of territorial transformation in Sweden certain subjects and practices are deemed more important than others. Thus, we underline the political aspects of the ongoing transformations and the empirical analysis facilitates the grounds for a critical discussions concerning the onlological claims, the theoretical claims and the policy recommendations of the creative class theory that we find inherently linked to processes of exclusion and hierarchy.
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- Säll, Line, 1983-
(författare)
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Kluster som teori och politik : Om den regionala tillväxtpolitikens diskursiva praktiker
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The starting point for this study is the successive changes in regional policy that has taken place in Sweden. These changes can be understood within the context of a new regional discourse emphasising the role of ‘strong regions’. Regional actors are expected to ‘pull together’, mobilising regional resources in a more globalised world. The introduction of the cluster concept in the politics for regional growth in Sweden can be seen in the light of this new discourse. Inspired by the works of Michael Porter, and clusters such as Silicon Valley, public actors from all over the world have adopted what could loosely be identified as an approach encouraging cluster development. The regionalisation of decision-making power has also been motivated by increased democratisation of the politics for regional growth. At the same time, it has been argued that regional policy is strongly marked by consensus and that politics and ideology have been left aside in these processes. This thesis analyses the conditions for the political in this new regional discourse. Building on qualitative data and with regional cluster policy as an empirical case, this is done through analysing clusters as politics. From the ontological assumption that the way politics is talked about shapes how politics is done, the research question that underlies the study is: how is the regional politics for cluster development articulated and shaped? Two of the main conclusions are that the cluster discourse has changed over time and that regional politics for cluster development can be seen as de-politicized. ‘Clusters’ are introduced in Swedish national policy as an ‘interesting theory’ about how firms create and sustain competitiveness. Today, cluster development is understood as organised cooperation between ‘clusters of firms’, universities and public actors. A new form of political organisation is taking place at the regional level. At the same time, the regional politics for cluster development can be described as de-politicized. It is strongly marked by consensus and there is a lack of public discussion concerning who gains and who loose in this form of organisation. The findings suggest that this de-politicization can be understood in the light of the theoretical articulation of cluster policy, in the light of the relation between theory and politics, knowledge and power.
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| 15. |
- Säll, Line, 1983-
(författare)
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Regionalpolitikens diskursiva grunder och gränser : Om politik, makt och kunskap i det regionala samhällsbyggandet
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The change in regional governance in Sweden is regularly understood in terms of a shift from ’government’ to ’governance’, from a redistributive policy to a policy that aims to encourage regional innovation, competitiveness and growth. This shift also includes the adoption of global policy models, such as ’clusters’. In the literature on the global spread of policies it has been argued that a market for global policies has developed. This is not least evident through the expansion of global consultancy firms, international policy organisations as well as a cosmopolitan elite of travelling policy technocrats.Theoretically and methodologically this study contributes to scholarly discussions of how new forms of governance can be analysed, and especially how governmentality studies can be utilised and combined with analyses of the messy political practices of specific policies and programs. The study analyses the discursive shift in regional policy in Sweden: contested elements erased, conflicts concealed and the political order produced. By empirically departing from a ’cluster policy network’ lodged within a Swedish region, cluster policy is analysed as an assemblage of global circuits of knowledge, expertise and local relations of power. A broad range of materials for analysis have been generated through interviews, participant observations and documents.The production of policy knowledge is an overarching political rationality of contemporary forms of regional governance, translated into technologies such as benchmarking, regional comparisons, competitions, evaluations and best-practice. Based on the empirical analyses it is argued that the lack of power critique and a hyper-rational representation of knowledge produce an international market for legitimacy. It is further argued that five characteristics of the policy regime (’the regional cluster orchestra’) contributes to the reproduction of the policy regime, and relations of domination.
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